Cycling from Blythe to Phoenix and What We Saw on the Way
- genevieve
- Nov 8, 2017
- 4 min read
We were so excited to have a new type of desert to look at. A cactus may not sound like much, but any type of plant life is welcomed when you've seen only sand for several days.
All in all, we rode about 175 miles bicycle touring from Blythe, CA, to Phoenix, AZ. This brought our total mileage up to about 734 miles. We covered this distance from September 22 to September 27, 2017 (days 18–23 of our trip).
Crossing Our First State Line
Riding across the California-Arizona border on the Colorado River felt like a real accomplishment. It was almost unbelievable for us to think that we'd cycled from one state to another!
After the border crossing, we had to take the 10 freeway for about fifteen miles. Thankfully it had a wide shoulder, but unfortunately it was covered in debris. This seems to be the case with major freeways, which is only one reason we do everything we can to avoid them. So many semitrucks travel them that there are tire remains everywhere. We dodged everything we could to avoid getting a flat tire, and we made it safely to our exit.
New State, New Terrain
The mountains all around were beautiful and reminded us a bit of Utah's desert. Doug was really excited about seeing Saguaro cactus, so we made sure to get a photo with one (little did we know that we'd see them all through Arizona).
We made it to Quartzsite for our first night of sleep in Arizona. It was interesting to be back to a place I'd been as a child. I remembered going with my family to visit my grandma there and attend the gem festival. Quartzsite was bigger than I remembered, but there were also fewer people than I thought because the festival brings in a ton of shoppers!
Most of the grocery stores in Quartzsite weren't fully stocked, so we stopped at all five to get what we needed for our next few meals. We stayed at a dispersed camping area called Scaddan Wash, which was pretty close to our route. It was so nice to have the option to put our tent in the shade of trees! That felt like a real luxury.
The weather was so pleasant all night that we camped without our rainfly on. The stars and moon are so striking throughout the desert, so we made sure to enjoy them.
Hot Days Call for Early Mornings
Most of our days in western Arizona reached above 85° F in the afternoon. That probably doesn't sound too hot, but it feels very warm when the sun is beating on us. We often woke up around 5:30 to leave by 7:00 a.m. and try and finish our cycling by lunchtime.
We made coffee and oatmeal for breakfast at Scaddan Wash and packed up the tent before heading slowly uphill from Quartzsite to Brenda. Once we left the 10 freeway for the 60, our day improved because we didn't have to deal with debris—and we had a slight downhill for a few miles! We've found that this can be a real mood booster.
We dealt with a little more down and up and rode through the town of Hope before arriving in Salome, where we camped at Centennial Park. We were the only campers there that night, which wasn't much of a surprise as September is the off season for the desert.
Shopping at a Real Grocery Store
This trip has helped us appreciate some things we definitely used to take for granted—like shopping at grocery stores. Yes, sometimes small markets are preferable as they don't bombard you with 157 different types of rice. But most small stores we pass on our bicycle tour are Family Dollar or Dollar General, which don't have any fresh produce. As two vegans (and also as humans), we really appreciate having access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
So we had a lot—well, a Safeway—to look forward to on our ride from Salome to Wickenburg. We had a long, slow uphill for the first part of the day before we coasted downhill into Wickenburg. During the day, we saw several dead tarantulas and live donkeys, and Doug spotted a coyote near the road. We stopped at Safeway to load up on on groceries and then cycled to the RV park where we camped (and showered! and did laundry!) that night.
Downhill to Phoenix
We rode pretty quickly from Wickenburg to Glendale, which is in the Phoenix metro area. Having a mostly downhill day was so enjoyable! It just got better from there, too.
We stopped in Glendale to stay with my old coworker and friend, Maria. We used to work together at the International Rescue Committee, and she currently works at the Phoenix location. She brought us dinner—delicious hummus and falafel—from a local refugee's restaurant. She was housesitting elsewhere, so we had her whole apartment to ourselves! So, so kind and generous of her and her husband.
Cycling and Eating in the City
Riding throughout the Phoenix area wasn't too great when we were on main roads. Unfortunately we didn't have other options for some parts of our route, and we got aggressively honked at by a semitruck. We were able to stay on a bike path for most of our ride from Glendale to downtown Phoenix, so that was really pleasant.
We met our Warmshowers host, Susan, at her awesome, self-built straw bale home downtown. She was such a kind woman who gave us her loft condo space for our two nights in Phoenix! It was just a few blocks away from her house and so close to everywhere we wanted to eat downtown.
During our rest day, we bicycled around the downtown area. We visited Bicycle Nomad Café and met the owner, Erick, who was such a friendly and inspiring person. We also ate at Green New American Vegetarian, where we tried the Big Wac—it's the restaurant's vegan take on a Big Mac. It was pretty good! Nami is next door and offers vegan soft serve, so we grabbed dessert there.
What's Next
After Phoenix, we headed up through Tonto National Forest. Erick rode with us for a mile or so in the morning—that was fun! We'll update the blog on the rest of Arizona soon!
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